“We are really proud of him. He was on it the whole time and actually came within a stones throw of winning. Our whole team has been working double time over the last six weeks and it definitely paid off. This is our best finish to date and the first of many to come.”

Thundering off the Starting Grid in 8th place, Fong began making his way up through the field. By lap 13 he was in 2nd. Falling back into 4th on lap 15, Fong put his head down and showed his incredible determination.

Bobby Fong says: “I wasn’t going to settle for 4th,” said the rider from Stockton, Calif. “I was going to finish the race on the podium.”

And, finish on the podium he did, taking over the 2nd place slot on the final lap.

“What a rush,” said Fong. “I’m pretty much speechless. I wanted to be the first member of our team to put the DNA Energy Drink banner on the podium and I succeeded. I couldn’t be more pleased.

Running for 21 laps on the 2.4 Mid-Ohio track, Fong averaged a speed of 96.0 mph, the same as the leader.

“The team gave me an awesome bike. My Ducati was flawless. We were just 0.045 seconds behind the leader and that is pretty close. We will definitely be ready for more tomorrow. Hopefully, we can land on the podium two times in a row.”

Teammate Michael Beck, who fell to the back at the start, also did a great job. Moving up at a steady rate, he managed to pass a number of riders for a 13th place overall.

In SuperSport, Joey Pascarella managed to score a 7th place finish despite getting a bad start of the grid.